Gazette. In this post he remained until the invasion of the French in May, 1808. An article appeared in the Gazette unfavourable to the invader, and Cienfuegos was sent for by Murat, bitterly reproached for his resistance to the conqueror of the day, and sent a prisoner to France. He died in July, 1809, at Ortez, soon after his arrival. So vehement was his anti-Bonapartist feeling, that he suppressed an ode in which he had praised the emperor for having respected the tomb of Virgil. The poet, it would seem, felt that no homage to departed greatness could atone for the destruction of his country's liberty and prosperity.—F. M. W.
CIFRA, Antonio, a musician, was born in the Roman States in 1575, and died at Loretto before 1638. He was a pupil of Palestrina and of Bernardo Nanino. His first engagement was at the German college in Rome. In 1610 he was appointed maestro di capella at Loretto; he left this place to fulfil the same office at the church of S. Giovanni di Lateran in 1620; he entered the service of the Archduke Charles, with whom he went to Vienna in 1622; and he returned to Loretto in 1629, to be reinstated in his former appointment, and there remained till his death. He wrote a very great number of masses, motets, and works in every other form of church music, including a series of antiphones for every day in the year; these are reputed as admirable specimens of the severe Roman school. After the death of Cifra, A. Poggioli published two hundred of his compositions under the title of Ten Concerti Ecclesiastici; this collection is dated 1638.—G. A. M.
CIGNA, Giovanni Francesco, an Italian anatomist, author of several dissertations on electricity, was born at Mondovi in 1734, and died in 1790. He was professor of anatomy in the university of Turin, and was one of the founders of the Academy of Sciences of that city.—J. S., G.
CIGNANI, Count Carlo: this painter was born at Bologna in 1628. He was the descendant of an honourable family, and his first efforts in the way of art were in attempting copies of the pictures in his father's gallery. He was then placed in the school of Battista Cairo; subsequently he studied under and became a disciple of Francesco Albano. Of a modest and anxious disposition, and always depreciating his own worth, he nevertheless possessed much original talent, could think for himself when he dared, and even eventually founded a style of his own. It had Carracciesque elements certainly, but it was original nevertheless. He revelled in grand flowing drawing, in elevated and noble heads, in broad and gorgeous folds and draperies, and in a harmony of colours, rich yet strong, mellow but intense. He was very careful of general effect, and his details were most painstakingly wrought out. After visiting Rome, and working for some of the churches there, he returned to Bologna; and in the employ of Cardinal Farnese he painted his "Entry of Pope Paul III. into Bologna," and his Francis passing into that city, for the grand saloon of the palace of the cardinal. He was the founder of the Clementine academy at Bologna, and by the diploma of Pope Clement XI., he was placed at its head. He was soon after appointed to decorate the cupola in the church of La Madonna del Fuoco at Forlì. On this prodigious work he was occupied for above twenty years; and so great was the respect and love of his academy for him, that they moved bodily to and held their seances at Forlì, to be near their founder, and receive the full benefit of his superintendence and counsel. Cardinal San Cesareo, passing through Forlì, desired to possess a work of Cignani's, and purchased an "Adam and Eve" which the painter had by him, and wrought at leisurely for his own delectation. The cardinal bought the work for five hundred pistoles, saying, that he gave that sum for the canvass; for the painting, he could only give his thanks, it being beyond pecuniary price. This picture, a work of extraordinary beauty, was some few years back in England, and for sale. It is now in the possession of the king of Holland. Cignani lost much time in cross-examining his own success. His facility was strangely fettered by his want of confidence. Yet he has left many and important works, and his name is a star of some magnitude in art's heavenly host. At Bologna he painted the "Nativity" in the church of S. Giorgio; in S. Lucia the "Virgin and Child," with saints; in S. Michele four sacred subjects, oval shaped, supported by angels of exquisite beauty. Next the Palazzo Zambecarri he painted a "Samson," very grandiose and noble; and in the collection of the duke of Devonshire there is a duplicate work of "Joseph's Temptation"—the original being in the palazzo Arnaldi at Florence—a very fine composition, with beauty in its drawing, and vigour in its colour. For a monastery of Piacenza he painted the "Conception of the Virgin." "Robed in white," says Lanzi, "Mary is seen bruising the serpent's head—while in gorgeous purple, her son stands with an air of dignity and grace, his foot placed upon that of his mother." His "Birth of the Virgin," at Urbino, was treated in so poetic a spirit as to incur censure. He died in 1719.—W. T.
CIGNANI, Felice: this painter, the son and scholar of Carlo, was born at Bologna in 1660, and died in 1724. He was one of the few disciples who adhered to the finished and unremunerative method of their master.—W. T
CIGNANI, Paolo, the nephew and scholar of Carlo, also a good painter, born in 1709; died in 1764.—W. T.
CIGNAROLI, Giovanni Bettino: this accomplished painter was born at Verona in 1706. He studied under Santo Prunati at Venice; subsequently he became a pupil of Antonio Balestra. He attained to considerable eminence, and has been ranked among the first painters of the modern Venetian school. He painted with a serene and graceful manner, dignified in his attitudes, and sober in his general composition. He had an ugly proneness to green shadows in his flesh, with a certain coppery tone in places; and he studied effect, rather than nature, in his disposition of light. The Emperor Joseph II. was wont to declare that he had seen two great sights in Verona—one the amphitheatre, the other Cignaroli, the most accomplished painter in Europe. He was a studious man, fond of philosophical reading, relishing the Roman classics, and himself playing prettily with Tuscan verse. He produced also treatises on the fine arts, of great repute in their day. His finest work is his "Flight into Egypt," at the church of S. Antonio Abate at Parma. He died in 1770.—W. T.
CIGOLI. See Cardi.
CIMABUE, Giovanni: this illustrious artist was born in the city of Florence, in the year 1240. At an early age he was sent to Santa Maria Novella, to study letters under a relation who was master in grammar to the novices of that convent. The young Cimabue did not prosper in his studies; he neglected his books all but the margins, which he adorned with multitudinous devices; and when certain Greek painters came to decorate the chapel of the Gondi, situate next to the principal chapel of the Santa Maria, he took every opportunity, legitimate or not, of frequenting their society. Eventually he was taken into their employment. He aided in the decoration of the convent walls, and soon gave ample and astounding evidence of his genius. Fame dawned upon him. He painted a picture for the altar of Santa Cecilia, and of the Virgin in Santa Croce in Florence. He produced a picture of "St. Francis" in panel, on a gold ground, and then a large picture for the abbey of the Santa Trinita. He was gradually emancipating art. He still clove to gold grounds; still something of the mosaic manner clung to his work. But the sharp angles began to disappear, and the hard lines to melt. He painted a colossal crucifix on wood for the church of Santa Croce so successfully, as to obtain a commission to paint a picture of "San Francesco" for the church of that saint at Pisa. For the same church he also produced a large picture of the Virgin with the Infant in her arms, surrounded by angels. He acquired a wide repute by these labours, and received an invitation to decorate the church of St. Francis at Assisi. He here so far surpassed the Greek painters working with him, that he proceeded alone to paint the upper church in fresco. This was a work of amazing labour, which he was obliged to leave incomplete, being recalled to Florence by private affairs. Many years after, Giotto's pencil put the finishing stroke to the work of Cimabue. Returned to his native city, he next painted in the cloister of Santo Spirito. At the same time he sent some of his works executed in Florence to Empoli, where they were preserved for some centuries with great veneration. He next painted the picture of the "Virgin" for the church of Santa Maria Novella. This work created an extraordinary popular enthusiasm. It was carried in procession, amidst trumpetings and acclamations of all sorts, from the house of the painter to the church. It is reported that the studio of the artist was visited, while this work was on the easel, by King Charles the Elder, of Anjou, who was passing through Florence. Cimabue had now reached a high name and great wealth. He had been appointed, in conjunction with Arnolfo Lapi, to superintend the building of the church of Santa Maria del Fiore in
